McKENZIE has completed the renovation of the historical New Providence Lodge building in Overtown into Tribe Urban Innovation Lab and Cowork, a multi-use, co-working space that will focus on serving local, African American youth and the South Florida entrepreneur community.

McKENZIE’s design creates a flexible workspace that contains design elements that are in tune with the evolving workplace and the needs of today’s entrepreneurial workforce.

Owned by Felecia Hatcher and Derick Pearson, both successful entrepreneurs working to provide opportunities for African Americans to thrive in the tech industry, Tribe will house Code Fever and BlackTech Week, two nonprofits founded by Hatcher and Pearson that help build and diversify startup ecosystems and support African American entrepreneurs, as well as several black-owned businesses.

McKenzie, a boutique design, build, and custom fabrication firm recently completed the renovation of the two-story, 3,700-sf New Providence Lodge building in the Overtown neighborhood of Miami.

The building, which once housed a Freemason chapter during the Jim Crow era, is now the Tribe Urban Innovation Lab and Cowork, a multi-use, co-working space with a maker lab, classrooms, and collaborative event and hangout spaces. The idea is for the new space to primarily serve local, African-American youth.

Many of the building’s original features were preserved, such as the original wood ceiling and steel beams. These restored historical elements add a visual contrast to the collaborative workspace’s clean and modern finishes.

To read the full story, visit Building Design + Construction.